Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus having a main image capturing system and a sub image capturing system.
Description of the Related Art
Image capturing apparatuses such as video cameras and digital cameras are proposed, each of which has, in addition to a main image capturing system for acquiring a normal captured image, a sub image capturing system. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-049651 discloses an image capturing apparatus that has, in addition to a main image capturing system including a zoom lens, a sub image capturing system including a fixed focal length lens having a wide view angle. This image capturing apparatus acquires a wider view angle captured image by the sub image capturing system than that acquirable by the main image capturing system to facilitate following a moving object. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-049651 further discloses a method for acquiring information on an object distance, using the captured images acquired by the main and sub image capturing systems.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-061560 discloses an image capturing apparatus having, in addition to a main image capturing system having a zoom lens, multiple stereo cameras as sub image capturing systems having mutually different focal lengths.
This image capturing apparatus acquires object distance information from parallax information provided by the stereo cameras and performs AF (autofocus) of the main image capturing system using the object distance information.
However, in the image capturing apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2012-049651 and 2013-061560, a viewpoint position of the sub image capturing system is different from that of the main image capturing system, which generates in the captured image acquired by the sub image capturing system an object area (occlusion area) not included in the captured image acquired by the main image capturing system. It is generally difficult to acquire the parallax information in the occlusion area. Therefore, the captured image acquired by the main image capturing system includes an area where the object distance information cannot be acquired from the parallax information acquired using the sub image capturing system.